Monday, February 22, 2010

What really hit me about this place is the striking absence of older children to carry and play with all those young ones. At the other orphanage, there were many older "brothers and sisters" to help with the babies and toddlers. Here, unless they cry, they are not held or interacted with, and even crying doesn't guarantee attention. It broke my heart. It was so hard to leave knowing that I have the resources, time, energy, space to take care of these babies and love them and feed them, yet I can't take them home. One step at a time, God will lead.

Well, we've been busy this weekend. We went to the Save the Children orphanage on Saturday and then our home study provider came from Germany to do our home study on Sunday!

First, the orphanage visit! It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get up there. We drove through windy mountain roads. It was really beautiful; I love getting out of the city! There was a hairy 30 minutes of the drive when we drove on the mountainside on a one lane rocky road with no barrier and just a drop off! I kept praying that we wouldn't meet any cars or trucks on the way up when we would be on the side of the road by the edge. Thankfully, God answered my prayers and we only met vehicles on our way down when we could back up to a bit of wider place and then we get to hug the rock wall! We traveled up there with the mwami (king) who is actually a woman (her husband was the king and he died so she because the working king); she was one of the first women lawyers in DRC. When we reached the boundaries of territory she asked the driver to stop because she wanted to walk into it on foot. It was touching to walk with her as she told us different stories and identified things like wild raspberries on the side of the road.

We first toured the mission hospital. The orphanage is located at the back of the hospital compound. We were shown into the pediatric ward. That was sad! They used to get therapeutic milk for those children that came in with severe starvation, now they don't have any. There were some children there that were severely malnourished, and all they could do for them was give them medicines. I'm going to see if I can meet with UNICEF who used to give them therapeutic milk; it is given out free to all the hospitals here to treat severely malnourished children. Maybe it fell through the cracks for some reason. It was sad to realize that if the kids in the orphanage got any worse, in terms of malnourishment, they would go to the hospital where they couldn't do anything either.

The orphanage was a small building that was built by the Norwegian missionaries and aid groups to house 25 kids. You can tell that it once had funding and support because the walls are brightly painted with animals and flowers. They have far exceeded that amount of children because they are the only orphanage in a very large large area. So, they only keep children under 5 at this orphanage. There are 32 kids under 5 there now, 10 of them are 13 months and younger. They were all really little. About 80 plus kids are in foster families, or in some other extended family situation (these are all 6 years and older). There are two rooms and two small indoor rooms for playing when it rains. Otherwise they eat outside under a covered area on the floor. They have 4 caregivers during the day and 3 at night (which is not that many when you realize that out of the 32 kids, only about 12 are walking)! Most of the mothers of these children died at birth and then the fathers abandoned the babies at the hospital. Some children will go back to families after they have lived at the orphanage long enough to move past the vulnerable years of under age 5. (Once, we were told they tried to let a child go earlier than this back to his father and the child died soon thereafter of starvation).

We thought, when we visited the baby room, that most of the babies were 6 months or younger, because of their size and because almost all of them were laying in their cribs not rolling around. And when we held them they really couldn't hold their heads up and definitely not sitting on their own. It was heartbreaking to learn that most were 11-14 months old. One little boy was 7 months old. His mother died at birth and he was found almost 2 weeks later almost dead. He didn't look so good to me. I don't know how he will survive there. He probably weighs 6 lbs and has absolutely no strength. Children like him haunt my dreams. There was another little girl who is just 12 months old. Just rolling her head from side to side, so little, cannot sit or roll, her twin sister already died there. She appears very apathetic, she never smiles. She didn't appear that well to me, I don't think she will live that much longer either. I had brought one can of formula with me, such a small amount, we had no idea there were so many babies who desperately need formula up there. They try to feed these babies formula but it cost 12$ a can for a very small can and they have no regular funding! It's heartbreaking. There was another little guy who looked about 9 months old (if we used healthy kid standards) who was sitting up just rocking back and forth because he is so under stimulated. He probably is almost 2.

The thing is, is that the director there and the women who work there, really care about these kids and they are doing the best they can with what they have. An orphanage is almost impossible to run without outside funding. They lost their support 5 years ago, and you can tell. They now rely on donations that arrive sporadically. The director is wonderful and realizes that they need help. He also realizes the children need more stimulation and play and wants education for all of them so they can work with the kids. The staff get paid $40/month. This is a horribly small amount. It is much less than field workers get per month. So, they do the best they can.

So, I'm hoping and praying that we can raise some money to support this orphanage, at least bring some more formula up there, hopefully do more. We are looking at the possibility of Our Family Adoptions partnering with this orphanage, it's a wonderful organization that is not for profit and all the staff volunteer (including the lawyer). They are not an adoption agency, though they do support and help families who want to adopt from the orphanages that they are in partnerships with in Kinshasa and Lubambashi. Their mission is to provide resources to Congolese orphans, especially those who are not adopted, and to raise awareness about DRC. ONE way they accomplish our mission is through adoptions of children who will never have the chance to be raised in a family. Adopting families are required to give the orphanage a humanitarian stipend and to travel to DRC. They raise money to help support orphanages. The lawyer that started this organization is the one who has been helping us along the way and we've been so impressed with her and with the mission and focus of the organization, especially how they are trying to help those orphans that are not adopted. I'm very excited about this possibility for these children, check them out at www.ourfamilyadoptions.org! This is from their website:

We partner with families and the community to provide loving homes and support to orphans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

In the event families wish to adopt, a licensed attorney volunteers legal services for US immigration purposes.

We recruit donations of material goods to provide housing, infrastructure, clothing, infant formula, supplies, educational materials and scholarships to orphans in DRC of all ages.

It was a long day, the trip was long, but I'm so so thankful I was able to go, now to work for these kids!

Oh, and yes, the home study is going well. Really a lot less stressful than we imagined it would be in the end!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Dear Moses, I want you to know that we love you. We so wanted to adopt you and call you ours but God had other plans. My heart is broken over this, and I find it hard to say goodbye, even when we know very clearly it is the right thing to do. I don't know why there are so many hard things in this world. Why your mama had to die giving birth to you, or why your papa and family can't take care of you now. I don't know why, and I don't have the answers. I will pray for you always, little boy. I will pray that you know the love and care of our God who has a love for you that is beyond comprehension and so much bigger than ours could ever be. I will pray that there will be people who come into your life that love you and teach you about God and His love for you. It is because of this loving God that I have the courage and faith to say goodbye. Know you are precious beyond words and loved. I love this picture of you and me because it is the first time I met you, you were sick with a fever, but you held onto my finger so tightly the entire time we visited you. I'm sorry, buddy, and I hope for you a life of love and joy.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

So, last week I continued on my journey to look for other orphanages. First of all because we think we are going to have to look for a different orphanage to adopt from, but also because we want to find ways to help orphans here in the Bukavu area. There aren't any other "registered" orphanages in the city of Bukavu, or closer than 3 hours out. We have heard of two others at this point. One on an island on lake Kivu, and one three hours outside of the city. We are working on looking at these two. Meanwhile, I went with Sue last week to visit some programs that did orphan care here in the city. We followed a random lead I had (from searching on-line). It led us to the local nazarene church. The pastor of this church took us for a trip last tuesday where we visited their center and then to another center that was in the city. I will share about this second center.

It was started in 2004-05 by a congolese woman who wanted to help all the displaced people, specifically orphans, after the war. She started an association to do so. Right now she has 3600 members who all pay dues (less than 50 cents a month) to contribute to 6 centers in and around Bukavu. There are probably 400 orphans who participate. Every tuesday and friday the children come to the center and get a meal of porridge. They are also given some type of schooling, since most do not go to school. They live with families, some are relatives, some are association members who take them in. One center has 3 teachers who volunteer to teach 105 kids 6 days a week. They are not paid (like most teachers here!). We first visited the center in Bukavu, which is on the property of Mama Dorcas (the woman who started this association). Wow! Compared to the Katana orphanage where Moses lives, these kids really have nothing. Some walk 2 hours to get to this place 2 times a week. There they get one meal of porridge and some schooling. They meet in the small mud church building. Her house, which is a really poor simple dwelling, is next to the church. They have taken in 4 orphans, so 13 people live in their house. We noticed a boy of about 4 years old with an obvious cataract in one eye. Here is his story.

One day this woman and her sister were walking and saw a sack moving in the ditch. It was raining. They figured it was cats. They needed a cat so they picked it up. It was this little boy. The umbilical cord and placenta where still attached. Somehow he was still alive. The sister took him in. We wonder if his vision can be saved.

Now we are praying about how to help. How do we give in the best way to really help these kids? I like that they have done all of this on their own. They have no outside help. In fact, we were the first mzungu (white people, foreigners) visitors. The need is great here. At this point we are thinking of perhaps purchasing some sewing machines because they want to start a sewing project with the older orphans and buying a huge bale of clothes (these are sold here, they are used clothes from all over the world vacuum packed into HUGE bales!!). We are praying.

New Here?

We are an American family living in Mwanza, Tanzania after 2 years of life in the States. Michael is a country director for an NGO which serves school children. Holly is a pediatric nurse practitioner. Before our time in the States, we lived in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for 4 1/2 years. We have four little girls who are 7, 5, and four year old twins. Back in DRC, we started a small charity called Reeds of Hope. Originally we started it to support the small baby home where our girls spent the first 5 months of their lives. Since that time, we have grown and changed in our mission and focus. Now we are working hard to transition to a model of family support, reunification, and alternative care.

Please do not use any photos on this blog without permission. All photos are ones taken by the author of this blog and not for use elsewhere without permission. Thank you.

Header photo on far left is used with permission from Channel Initiative and is from eastern DRC. Photo on right is from Mwanza, Tanzania.